Lemoore Army Air Field
Lemoore Army Airfield
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| Part of Army Air Force Training Command | |
| Kings County, near Lemoore, California | |
Remains of Lemoore AAF, 2006 USGS Airphoto
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 Lemoore AAF
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| Coordinates | 36°15′03.09″N 119°56′50.74″W / 36.2508583°N 119.9474278°WCoordinates: 36°15′03.09″N 119°56′50.74″W / 36.2508583°N 119.9474278°W |
| Type | Army Airfield |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | United States Army Air Forces |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1941-42 |
| In use | 1942-1945 |
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | Army Air Force Training Command |
Lemoore Army Air Field, located nine miles (14 km) southwest of Lemoore, California, was a dirt air field usable only in dry weather. It nevertheless was used by the AAF Western Flying Training Command as a processing and training field.
The site of Lemoore AAF is located south of the intersection of Route 198 & 27th Avenue, two miles (3 km) west of the main gate of Lemoore NAS.
This base was built during World War II as an Army Air Forces training field. The Federal Government acquired 1,466 acres (5.93 km2) for the Lemoore Basic Flying School in 1941-42. Approximately 488 acres (1.97 km2) were acquired in fee by grant deed from individual land owners, 963 acres (3.90 km2) were leased from the City of Lemoore and 14 acres (57,000 m2) were acquired by transfer from the National Housing Agency.
According to a World War II-era diagram, the field consisted of a roughly triangular shaped landing mat, which measured 3,470' along its longest side. A 3,700' long north/south apron sat to the southwest of the landing mat, and west of the apron was the building area. In addition, the airfield had a PX gas station, 10 gas tanks, a truck fill station, oil & lube station, motor repair shop with 4 grease racks & 4 underground tanks, fire station, cadet quarters, warehouses, officers quarters, mess hall, utilities shop, chapel, classrooms, water reservoir & water well, taxiways, runway, landing field, and two hangars.
Additional structures constructed by the Army for the Lemoore site were located south of the area shown on the 1941 & 1942 site maps, including an amphitheater & swimming pool.
Lemoore AAF was described by the 1944 US Army/Navy Directory of Airfields as having a 6,500' hard-surface runway, although the remarks included, "Entire field available only when dry."
Known sub-bases and auxiliaries were:
The Lemoore AAF site was declared surplus by the War Assets Administration on January 11, 1946, and was evidently reused as a civilian airfield, as that is how it was depicted on the 1953 San Diego - San Francisco Flight Chart. Apparently the airfield had also been significant expanded at some time after World War II as the 1953 chart depicted the field as having a 6,100' runway.
According to the 1 February 1957 issue of the Fresno Bee, the 1,460-acre (5.9 km2) site of the former Army Airfield was sold by the City of Lemoore in 1957 to the Navy, to be used as part of the site for the new Lemoore Naval Air Station. The present-day Lemoore Naval Air Station is just a few miles to the north of the former Lemoore AAF. Ironically, the northern end of the runways of the huge Lemoore NAS sit on the same ground previously occupied by Lemoore AAF's satellite field A-6 Summit Lake.
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Wikipedia